Blazers: For Luke Babbitt, D-League assignment should provide playing time, perspective

Bruce Ely/The OregonianLuke Babbitt will play six games for the Idaho Stampede.

The Trail Blazers are in a long stretch in which they have no more than one day between games, making it a tough time for their young players to get enough court time to develop.

That’s the main reason the team sent rookie forward Luke Babbitt to the Idaho Stampede, Portland’s NBA Development League affiliate, on Wednesday.

“He was on the inactive list, and he’s working hard in practice,” Blazers coach Nate McMillan said. “But with our schedule and really not practicing a lot, we felt like he needed to play. We’re in December and he hasn’t gotten a lot of time on the floor.”

Just this week, the Blazers have kept their practices short, going 90 minutes both Monday and Wednesday, to accommodate a schedule of four games.

Babbitt becomes the seventh player Portland has sent to its D-League affiliate. Martell Webster, Sergei Monia, Seung-Jin Ha, Taurean Green, Josh McRoberts and Patty Mills previously were sent down for stints.

McMillan said Blazers scout Joe Cronin already is in Idaho, and he might send an assistant coach or another staff member to Idaho to work with Babbitt during his stint, which is expected to last six games.

Because the D-League is owned and operated by the NBA, the Blazers are allowed to request that Stampede coach Randy Livingston play Babbitt at a certain position – say, small or power forward. McMillan, however, said he mostly wants Babbitt to get some game time.

“Just play,” McMillan said. “I think time on the floor will help him.”

During the 2005-06 season, when the D-League established its current relationship with the NBA, Webster and Monia became the first Blazers sent down when they were assigned to the Fort Worth Flyers, who were Portland’s D-League affiliate at the time. Webster, then a rookie who was drafted No. 6, became the first lottery pick assigned to the D-League.

Blazers assistant coach Bill Bayno, then a scout for the Blazers, was sent to Fort Worth to work with Monia and Webster. Bayno said he believes all eligible players – the current collective bargaining agreement allows teams to send down rookies and second-year players – who aren’t playing at least 25 minutes per game should be sent down at least once.

“Players don’t want to hear it, but for young guys, more than anything, it gets them to appreciate what they have at this level,” Bayno said. “First time Martell and I went down, we had an eight-hour bus ride – Fort Worth to Little Rock, Ark. Guys get up here and get complacent and get spoiled. The NBA will spoil you.”

NBA players assigned to the D-League are allowed to have their own rooms (other players have to share rooms) and fly first class when that is available (others have to fly coach). But the league is also characterized by, as Bayno said, “empty arenas, long bus rides and bad hotels.”

D-League rosters are filled with players who don’t have NBA deals and are making, at most, $27,000 for the entire season. The NBA players sent down continue to be paid by their NBA teams, meaning many are making 100 times what their temporary teammates are earning. Bayno remembers how that inspired the other players in Fort Worth, which included former Jefferson High standouts Ime Udoka and Aaron Miles.

“They would be in awe of Martell’s check,” Bayno said.

In Idaho, Babbitt will join a team that has three players from Oregon high schools – Seth Tarver (Jesuit), Salim Stoudamire (Lake Oswego) and Luke Jackson (Creswell). Former NBA All-Star Antoine Walker, trying to make a comeback, also just joined the team.

Being sent to the D-League does have some negative connotations, feeling to some like a demotion. But McMillan said the players he has sent down mostly have benefited from it.

“They look down about going there, but once they get down there, they appreciate where they are,” McMillan said. “It’s good for them.”